Tranquility Base

POST-LANDING ACTIVITIES

The flight plan called for the moonwalk to start about midnight Houston time. The idea had been to accommodate the possibility of the landing being delayed by one revolution, and still give Armstrong and Aldrin a period in which to wind down before starting the EVA preparations. However, as Armstrong reflected, “We had thought, even before launch, that: if everything went perfectly and we were able to touch down precisely on time; if we didn’t have any systems problems to concern us; and if we found that we could adapt to the one-sixth gravity lunar environment readily; then it would make more sense to go ahead and complete the EVA while we were still wide awake – but, in all candour, we didn’t think this was a very high probability.’’ Nevertheless, some 2 hours after landing, Aldrin called Houston, “Our recommendation at this point is to plan the EVA, with your concurrence, to start about 8 o’clock Houston time; that’s about 3 hours from now.’’

“Stand by,’’ responded Duke.

“Well,” said Aldrin, “we’ll give you some time to think about that.’’

But half a minute later Duke was back, “We’ve thought about it; we’ll support it. You’re Go at that time.’’ A moment later, he sought clarification, “Was your 8 o’clock Houston time a reference to opening the hatch, or starting the preparation for the EVA at that time?’’

“That would be hatch opening,’’ Armstrong replied.

“That’s what we thought.’’

But Armstrong then decided to play safe, “It might be a little later than that; in other words, we’ll start the preparations in about an hour or so.’’

Meanwhile, during his first pass overhead Collins had tried to see Eagle on the surface. As Columbia approached the general area of the landing site, he told his computer to slew the sextant onto the coordinates that Duke had given him. With the sextant maintaining the line of sight, he looked for either the momentary solar glint reflecting off the foil covering the vehicle, or the distinctive narrow shadow that it would project; but he saw neither. At his altitude of 69 nautical miles the 1.8- degree-wide circular field of view of the sextant covered an area of only a few square miles, and orbiting at almost 3,700 nautical miles per hour he was above 45 degrees

elevation for less than 2 minutes 30 seconds, which was barely enough to study the designated location – it was certainly insufficient time to slew the sextant around to conduct a search.

“How did Tranquility look to you down there?” Duke enquired afterwards.

“Well,” replied Collins, “the area looks smooth, but I was unable to see them.” As an afterthought, he added, “It looks like a nice area, though.”

Windler’s Maroon Team took over in order to deal with the EVA preparations, with Owen Garriott as CapCom.

“Columbia,” called Garriott, “Tranquility Base are prepared to begin the EVA early; they expect to begin depress operations in about 3 hours, at approximately 108 hours.’’

“Tell them to eat some lunch before they go,’’ recommended Collins.

About 20 minutes later, Armstrong and Aldrin reached the point in their flight plan at which they could doff their helmets and gloves. Their next item was to be lunch which, since there was no provision for hot water in Eagle, would be a cold snack. First, however, Aldrin had an item of his own. A month previously, he had asked Dean Woodruff, the minister at the Webster Presbyterian Church, “to come up with some symbol that meant a little bit more than what most people might be thinking of [immediately after the landing]’’, and they had decided that Aldrin should celebrate the Sacrament of Holy Communion. When Aldrin told Deke Slayton of this, Slayton reminded Aldrin that Apollo 8’s reading from Genesis had resulted in a law suit, and asked that he refrain from making overtly religious remarks.[32]

“This is the LM pilot,’’ Aldrin called. “I would like to take this opportunity to ask every person listening in, whoever and wherever they may be, to pause for a moment and contemplate the events of the past few hours and to give thanks in his or her own way.’’ Listening to her squawk box, his wife recognised the significance of his invitation for people to celebrate. He then switched off his microphone and drew from his personal preference kit a small silver chalice, a vial no larger than his little finger with a symbolic amount of wine, and a wafer representing bread loaf. Using the fold-down shelf in front of the DSKY as his altar he poured the wine, in the process observing that the fluid swirled around in the chalice for an inordinate time in the weak lunar gravity. He then read a card on which he had written the verse from the Book of John (15:5) traditionally used for this event: I am the vine, you are the branches; he who remains in me, and I in him, will bear much fruit; for apart from me you can do nothing. Communion was appropriate because it was a Sunday. Armstrong, who had been alerted in advance, watched in respectful silence. Unfortunately, NASA’s hope that the ceremony would remain private was foiled by the Reverend Woodruff himself, who told a reporter that he had supplied Aldrin with a Communion kit.

When the time approached at which it had been estimated that the astronauts might initiate their EVA preparations, with there having been no communications since Aldrin’s call, Garriott prompted, “We’d like some estimate of how far along you are with your eating, and when you may be ready to start your preparations.”

“I think we’ll be ready to start in about half an hour or so,’’ Armstrong said. With that, the circuit reverted to silence.

In fact, preparing for the excursion proved to be rather more time consuming than expected. In training, the cabin had been ‘clean’, with just the apparatus for the exercise present, but in reality the cabin held everything they would require for the mission, and 90 minutes had elapsed before they were ready to begin the EVA preparations, and then activities that were assigned 2 hours actually took 3 hours. It was therefore fortunate that they had opted to forgo the early rest period.

Meanwhile, Charlesworth’s Green Team took over, with Bruce McCandless as CapCom. He directed his attention to Columbia. Collins had inspected the second estimated position of the landing site, again in vain. While he would continue with these efforts, it dawned on him that although it was evident that Eagle was in the western half of the ellipse, the scatter in the estimated positions meant that Mission Control did not really know where it was.